Nigeria’s Presidential elections: are six female candidates better than one?

2018 is emerging as the “year of the woman”, with record numbers of women being elected in the US mid-terms, and first-time female presidents appointed in Singapore and Vietnam, among others. With the 2019 presidential election looming, Emily van der Merwe examines how Nigeria is faring.

Nigeria’s 2019 presidential election is turning out to be a race of geriatrics, […]

Why the Pankhurst Name is Synonymous with Ethiopia as well as the Suffragette Movement

LSE’s Behailu Shiferaw Mihirete tells the story of Sylvia Pankhurst, daughter of prominent suffragette Emmeline, who became a relentless advocate for Ethiopia during the Fascist Italian invasion of 1936 to 1941.

The year 2018 marks the centenary of the year when some women (who met the age (>30 years old) and property criteria or who were university educated) succeeded in […]

Women’s Rights in “Weak” States: The Promises and Pitfalls of Gender Advocacy in Transition

Milli Lake explores how and to what extent the spotlight on sexual violence has restructured judicial priorities in eastern DR Congo and South Africa.

Following a reported decline in conflict-related sexual violence in DR Congo, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict recently referred to the country as its “most successful story” yet.

Every week while collecting the data for my recent article in Health Policy and Planning, I heard reports of female migrants dying in Accra, Ghana. Some of these deaths were accidental. Others, like deaths from malaria or delayed care during childbirth, could likely have been prevented. Women face […]

Book Review – After Rape: Violence, Justice, and Social Harmony in Uganda by Holly Porter

In reviewing After Rape: Violence, Justice and Social Harmony in Uganda, Sverker Finnström compares the work of Holly Porter to the pioneering anthropologist Margaret Mead.

Over the last decade or so post-war Acholiland in northern Uganda—from where the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels originated—has been subjected to a massive research intervention. The development leaves me partly puzzled: despite a virtual avalanche of […]

Dorothea Hilhorst, Holly Porter and Rachel Gordon argue the lack of inclusivity in gender-targeted humanitarian aid has obscured other realities in which men and women assume different and more complex roles.

At the United Nations (UN) World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in May 2016, ‘achieving greater gender equality and greater inclusivity’ was identified as one of the five key areas of […]

Haile Selassie and his quest to develop a Westernised medical system in Ethiopia

Julianne Weis explores how a colonial mindset on Africa’s place and capacity in relation to Western medicine was fixed and applied to Ethiopia, even though the East African country had never been subject to sustained, colonial occupation like neighbouring African nations.

When Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Addis Ababa from exile in 1941, he granted immediate amnesty to the Italian […]

Masculinity and Militarisation under an Illiberal Democratic Regime

Rebecca Tapscott explores how Uganda’s ruling regime leverages tensions between masculine ideal-types to govern young men in the informal security sector.

In a new article, Policing men: militarised masculinity, youth livelihoods, and security in conflict-affected northern Uganda, Dr Rebecca Tapscott examines what masculinity can tell us about how the Ugandan state—an illiberal yet nominally democratic regime—governs its civilian population. Through […]

Is Liberia’s Sirleaf really standing up for women? #LiberiaDecides

Robtel Neajai Pailey and Korto Reeves Williams say that President Sirleaf’s promise to campaign for women candidates in Liberia’s upcoming elections comes too little, too late.
In a public statement earlier in August 2017, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – Africa’s first woman elected head of state – vowed to campaign actively for female candidates running in presidential and legislative elections in […]

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